Published: May 13, 2008 08:28 am            

LETTERS: May 13, 2008

Commissioner Moore offers explanation about cell phones stories

I knew when I contacted Melissa Moody from The Evening News that this county cell phones story would not reflect well on me, but I gave her the story anyway. A change in the cell phone plan that we have is long overdue, and the only way to get it corrected was to go public with the information. I still would like to see the previous two months overages corrected, but not being allowed to be the "point of contact" it is out of my hands.

I believe I had a very good plan worked out with Verizon that would have saved us a tremendous amount of money, I know Ralph Guthrie and Ed Meyer have mentioned a plan from Sprint, but in all honesty Sprint does not provide service throughout Clark County. I find it almost comical that whichever candidate wins the commissioner seat from District 2, Les Young or Jack Coffman they would not be able to take a call from their own house, they both reside in Starlight.

I am sorry I did not catch the billing situation sooner, I was simply going on the information that was provided to me. I have no apologies for the

amount of minutes I use, if they seem excessive to you, I ask you to please take into consideration I'm answering questions and addressing problems from the entire county. I do wish the other commissioners would allow their cell numbers to be provided to the public, I believe if that were the case my phone would ring a lot less.

I have told the Verizon rep, Mike Sanders, to remove me from the county plan. I will be paying my own cell phone bill from here on out. My phone

number will remain the same, and I encourage anyone who has a problem to call me, I will be happy to help. It’s 502-295-3738.

— Mike Moore, Clark County Commissioner

Councilman Fetz responds to reader

In response to a recent letter to the editor from Steve Voelker. I have always thought of Mr. Voelker as an intelligent and fairly educated

individual. However I can not understand why the difference in these two events is so difficult for anyone to understand.

First of all, unless you had $250 per person to donate to the former congressman Sodrel (I am sure you were there Steve!) you did not get to

listen to or even shake hands with the Vice President. That fundraising event raised over $250,000 for Mike Sodrel. The extra costs incurred by the

City of Jeffersonville could have easily been reimbursed by the Sodrel campaign and left plenty to spend on nasty billboards and mailers against current Congressman Baron Hill.

Second, When Barack Obama came to Southern Indiana for a free-to-the-public Town Hall Meeting thousands of people were able to listen to him speak. Sen. Obama decided to use Spring Street in Jeffersonville for a backdrop for his commercial. I did not see his staff passing around a hat or bucket asking for donations. I did not see anyone offering to take your picture with him for some obscene amount of money. What I saw was the next President of the United States of America shaking hands and talking with business owners and hundreds of Jeffersonville residents who had gathered around when they learned of the opportunity to witness his visit to our City for free.

Sen. Obama did not make any money on this event and did not charge anyone to hear him speak.

Had the soon to be former Vice President Cheney came to Southern Indiana and just humored the lowly peasants who could not afford the $250 fee by shaking a few hands and giving a speech to a group of normal everyday folks I would not have felt obligated to ask the recipient of the massive amounts of campaign cash to pony up. And please do not confuse this explanation as partisan. After Mr. Sodrel refused to reimburse the City of Jeffersonville, Gov/ Mitch Daniels reimbursed the City of Indianapolis for the extra security and protection for a similar event that the President attended. I wrote a letter to the editor acknowledging Governor Daniels kind gesture.

This is the way responsible and gracious politicians are supposed to respond to such requests.

While I feel my explanation was extremely clear and somewhat elementary, if Mr. Voelker needs me to make some flash cards or perhaps draw some diagrams for comparison reasons I would be glad to facilitate his request. Thank you.

— Keith Fetz, Jeffersonville

Smith: Floyd County IT job spurs questions about sharing

First let me applaud the Floyd County Commissioners for deciding to hire an information technology specialist. Bringing these services “in-house” will only enhance the pace at which the county government can take advantage of a rapidly advancing technology.

And the idea of partnering with the City of New Albany is also a great idea.

There is simply no reason for the two governments to duplicate that function. But the commissioners’ proposal for the city to pay one-half of the salary and benefits of the new IT specialist is fundamentally wrong. Somehow, somewhere, county leaders got the idea that residents of the city aren’t “really” their constituents, that city residents don’t pay the same county taxes as every other resident of the county. That attitude leads to

proposals like this one to split the IT salary evenly.

The city is not merely a source of funds for county government. People who live in the city choose to do so and in doing so, they pay additional taxes

for city services. City residents still pay county taxes, too. As a city resident, I am being asked by the county commissioners to pay

twice for the same service. Residents outside the city pay once. City residents pay twice under this proposal.

The county government is certainly right to seek payment in exchange for providing IT services to the city offices. That’s smart. That’s efficient.

That’s an effective use of public monies.

But asking for a 50 percent subsidy is way out of line. City government in the City-County building occupies about four offices — the mayor and staff,

the planning offices, the building commissioner’s office, and the city clerk’s office. I don’t know how many computers are on the third floor, but

I’ll wager that they don’t even come close to equaling one-half of the computers at Hauss Square.

I would urge the mayor and city council to negotiate a more reasonable allocation of the expenses for the new IT specialist. Perhaps the mayor and

the commissioners can take a census of the computers in use in all of the city and county offices at Hauss Square and then allocate the expenses

proportionally. Left unstated in the recent Tribune article is whether this IT specialist will also be serving other county offices, such as the Reisz

building and other outlying offices.

Will he or she be servicing the courts? Law enforcement?

At root, the idea that “the city” should pay half is misguided. Anyone who advocates for consolidation of services, much less unified government, would be well advised to get over the idea that New Albany residents should pay “half.” New Albanians, under this proposal, would be paying approximately one-half of the county’s share (based on population) and 100 percent of the city’s “share.” We would, in fact then be paying about 75 percent of the cost. I say “no way!”

— Randy Smith, New Albany

Reader: Stores don’t seem to be helping with environmental concerns

For two days I have had a very frustrating experience trying to obtain reusable thermal bags at two chain grocery stores.

The checkout clerks did not know where they were and proceeded to get miffed at even the asking.

With as much money as we consumers spend at either store (and you know they keep a running tally), the bags should be available at the checkout lanes and above all be given, not sold, as the company's way of going green, especially if one is spending $100 or more a week in their store. And if

that breaks their profit margin, then at least give it to the seniors and disabled, who I know would relish using a substantial bag instead of the

cheap plastic that falls apart before ever getting it home.

Thermal bags could be offered to the public at checkout, based on the customers’ purchasing dollars, as an alternative to plastic, as when they

used to ask, “paper or plastic.”

If companies go green in the simplest ways, then it is not hard for others to follow suit.

— Karen Fancher, New Albany

Offering praise for Georgetown's Don Carter

Don Carter of Georgetown will sorely be missed from the community. Don was active in all aspects of community life. Don was a basketball star and was paired with Harold Frederick as a double guard threat on a good team in the 44-45 season. This team upset Charlestown for one of its best victories of the season. He wore 00 on his jersey and was the high scorer on a formidable team.

I was younger but was chosen to pitch softball with the Georgetown men’s summer league and Don was the steady first baseman. You would have to know Don to understand his morals, character and his worth to the community of Georgetown. Don is also fortunate to have my lifelong friend, Rev. Roy McClain officiate the funeral. Our prayers to wife Nina and his children.

— Joe Pezzullo, Indianapolis

        

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